Monica Zaczynski

BDes., MaSC. – Experience Architect

Monica's unique ability to translate human behaviour to a cohesive and unique aesthetic vision and experience are what make her an asset to the Akendi team.

After attaining her degree in Graphic Design from York University/Sheridan College Monica worked as a design consultant and Creative Director for 3 years. This lead Monica to really value the importance of understanding the user and their goals when designing a truly impactful design project. She successfully applied these values to a range of mediums including print, interactive web, environment and product design to create a holistic experience.

In addition to her time at Akendi, Monica's unabated interest to create memorable experiences and enrich drew her to continue her education in Human-Computer Interaction where she is working towards her MaSC at Carleton University. When she doesn't have her nose in the books she has contributed her expertise to a number of design projects in the form of foundational structuring in information architectures to creating hi-fidelity wireframes.

Author Archives: Monica Zaczynski

Why Google’s testing black search results links is so revealing Recently Google caught a bit of flack for live testing search result link colours. If you weren’t one of the lucky (or unlucky?) 13%, I’ll fill you in. Rather than the typical blue (#1a0dab), then purple for a visited link, Google made all search result… Read more

I want to love and embrace fitness trackers. I really do. I’m active AND I love data. Yet despite doing a thorough fitness tracker competitive analysis, my steps go untracked. I flash back to my mom bringing me back-to-school shopping where I would gleefully pick out an agenda in addition to a variety of coloured… Read more

Card sorting is a great method of exploring and understanding how users organize and label content. In our post on Card Sorting, we provided the basics for running a card sort, types of card sorts and things to be cognisant of when facilitating a card sort. Applying what you have learned can be a challenge… Read more

During my years in design school we were encouraged (and actually required) to always begin our work by sketching – away from our computers, away from structure and grids – on a blank piece of paper with a pencil. To be clear, I haven’t ever claimed to be the greatest artist, and amongst many great… Read more

A little while ago I saw the movie Her, a sci-fi, dramatic comedy about a lonely writer named Theodore who develops an unlikely relationship with his operating system. While it seems like such a Jetsons-esque, futuristic plot at first, some of the artistic decisions within the film make it feel like a very real part… Read more

I had the pleasure of attending this years’ ACM CHI conference on Human Factors. I tore myself away from the excitement at the Akendi booth (yes, we were there if you missed us!) to attend a workshop lead by Don Norman, UX thought leader, design critic and author or The Design of Everyday Things. One… Read more

I came across Linda Matthew’s article Six Mobile Myths in uxmag the other day and it got me thinking how true it is that when we start designing for mobile we immediately imagine this mythical user that has a single goal and no attention span. Research has shown us that this is not the case,… Read more

Akendi is a product strategy, user experience design and usability research firm. We are passionate about the creation of intentional experiences – whether those involve digital products, physical products, mobile, service or bricks-and-mortar interactions. We work shoulder-to-shoulder to optimize the experiences you deliver. Akendi Corporate Overview (PDF).